Newsom wrote:Lots of interviews went up yesterday on various fansites.

BlizzPlanet wrote:Ghostcrawler hinted at an unannounced feature in this expansion that is going to really change how WoW is going to be played, much like the LFR feature – can we get a hint on when we might see this feature and what it might pertain to?

Tom Chilton wrote:We will probably see it in the 5.4 neighborhood if we are able to get it done in time. As far as hints a lot of players in the past have suggested that they be able to do older content so it’s probably something that goes along those lines.

theckhd wrote:Fuck no, we've seen what you do to guilds. Just imagine what you could do to an entire country. Just visiting the US might be enough to make the southern states try to secede again.

halabar wrote:Noo.. you don't realize the problem. Worldie was to negative guild breaking energy like Bolvar is to the Scourge. If Worldie is removed, than someone must pick up that mantle, otherwise that negative guild breaking energy will run rampant, destroying all the servers.

The trailer for 5.2 really restored my faith in the developers. I still don't care too much for the way they implemented the pandas but a troll instance, with completely new models (you have no idea how much this means to me) and an Algalon type boss at the end? Well I think that's bloody brilliant! None of this upgrading gear with valour either which IMO was a horrible idea that I am sure many will be glad to see the back of.

Now they just need to let me grind rep doing the one thing I enjoy (dungeons) and bring back cauldrons/feasts.

As for scaling old content, I have absolutely no interest and I say this as someone who did A LOT of old content in the past. I don't like the way they continue to reheat yesterday's content and serve it up as new; it's a waste of resources. The expansion only has 8 dungeons and yet they are wasting their time with this.

They said new content. Scaling old instances isn't new content and I refuse to believe after all the shit of ZA/ZG they'd be stupid enough to not only do it again but have that be a selling point of anything let alone a bridge to a new expansion.

Lieris wrote:As for scaling old content, I have absolutely no interest and I say this as someone who did A LOT of old content in the past. I don't like the way they continue to reheat yesterday's content and serve it up as new; it's a waste of resources. The expansion only has 8 dungeons and yet they are wasting their time with this.

I disagree. I've been advocating for using old content for years, in some scope or another. Instead of rehasing 8 dungeons for dailies, why not let us run one of 76 dungeons instead? If they mix old raid instances as well that number hits the 90s or so. This is an absurd amount of content lying fallow.

While that old stuff is old to those of us who have been playing forever, it would be new -- or somewhat fresh -- to people who started playing later. Do "new" players outnumber "old" players?

I'd prefer if they could work in randomly generated dungeons somehow, personally, but making old stuff applicable in a *fun* way as an optional method of VP grinding isn't a bad second choice.

Lieris wrote:As for scaling old content, I have absolutely no interest and I say this as someone who did A LOT of old content in the past. I don't like the way they continue to reheat yesterday's content and serve it up as new; it's a waste of resources. The expansion only has 8 dungeons and yet they are wasting their time with this.

I disagree. I've been advocating for using old content for years, in some scope or another. Instead of rehasing 8 dungeons for dailies, why not let us run one of 76 dungeons instead? If they mix old raid instances as well that number hits the 90s or so. This is an absurd amount of content lying fallow.

While that old stuff is old to those of us who have been playing forever, it would be new -- or somewhat fresh -- to people who started playing later. Do "new" players outnumber "old" players?

I'd prefer if they could work in randomly generated dungeons somehow, personally, but making old stuff applicable in a *fun* way as an optional method of VP grinding isn't a bad second choice.

It's also an absurd waste of development time. Unless you're one of the people who appreciated Cataclysm's lack of anything to do because so much time was wasted revamping 1-60.

If they are going to just scale everything up and leave the instances largely untouched then really the idea is kind of naff. It's completely uninteresting.

However if they are going to do it properly and put in new mechanics on the bosses, more interesting trash, re-itemised loot, challenge mode targets etc. then it's a massive undertaking that has taken considerable resources away from making new dungeons in an expansion that only has 6 (plus 2 remade old ones).

I just don't like this constant mining of past glories to pad out expansions. The new raid in 5.2 looks like it could be the best raid since Ulduar... that's the sort of content that will get me to resubscribe and what I want them to be piling 100% of their resources into.

Problem is the largest part of the playerbase, the people who started playing from late WotLK onwards when the game has become "more casual", have never seen all the vanilla/tbc/most of wotlk stuff, and would be interested in it.

To this not saying I'd approve, but I'm quite sure the new feature will be about mentoring and possibly rerunning old dungeons.

Would be glad to be proven wrong, obviously.

theckhd wrote:Fuck no, we've seen what you do to guilds. Just imagine what you could do to an entire country. Just visiting the US might be enough to make the southern states try to secede again.

halabar wrote:Noo.. you don't realize the problem. Worldie was to negative guild breaking energy like Bolvar is to the Scourge. If Worldie is removed, than someone must pick up that mantle, otherwise that negative guild breaking energy will run rampant, destroying all the servers.

I'd suggest something like they have in the RBG queuing where you can pick a handful of instances that you don't want (with 76 instances, maybe 5ish that you could "ban.") While not a perfect solution, it would allow you to remove your absolute least favorite.

Edit: Also, not sure when the last time was you ran some of those dungeons you listed Klaud, but a lot of them have been reworked (ie. broken up) to be far less annoying.

WC - Dungeon shrank to be less mazey with a couple removed bosses (iirc, the thunderlizard and elemental bosses are gone.)

Maraudon - Broken into three parts, with each being considered a separate instance, but still allowing a full clear if a group desires it.

UBRS - haven't noticed any changes, but I don't think I've gotten any random queues of it thus far.

BRD - broken into four or five sections (like Mara) that doesn't require a full clear for completion credit.

Would be nice to have some sort of indicator that you're even heading towards the correct bosses for completion (particularly when leveling.) I had one group in there that was somewhere around the Dwarven Council when I joined them. We finished up the Princess/Emperor... nobody got loot bags. Come to find out the one boss they needed to kill was the only one they didn't (the first one in the Detention Block.)

Maybe take a page from Rift and have auto-"quests" that start when you enter the dungeon, and tell you which boss/mobs you're supposed to be killing (kill X hounds and Y prison guards, something you should be killing on the way to the correct boss anyhow) with it auto-updating as you complete each section. I know they have quests like that already in the dungeons, but they do nothing to steer the person towards completion of RDF.

JoeBravo wrote:quick! somebody! find a something for Sagara to write about!A way to force him might be useful too

Cross-post from the 5.1 topic. *cracking knuckles*Time for more writing!

Chapter 0: Rumbles of Thunders (Day 0) : I etched the seventy-eight notch in my calendar-pole with my knife. It has been nearly three months since the debacle in Kun-Lai, and I had't reported back to Domination Point ever since. How could I? I looked down at my discarded armor, crumpled in a corner of my small room, then back up at my shield, hanging gracefully above the mess. The stern look of the Shattered Sun Crest seemed dismissive of my disdain for my armor, but I could not care for a war that had brought nothing to this world. I turned my back to the shield to leave my house. As the sun lazily rose over Kun-lai, I could still feel the sting of a cold morning on Binan. The locals had slowly begun the tasks of the day, preparing everything they would need to plant the first seeds of the year. I chatted a bit, then set myself to plow through the Northern field.

"Still not going back to your people then?" Cho had become a personal friend of mine over the days. An elder pandaren, Cho had trained alongside the Shado-pan for over four decades before a stray Mantid arrow had nearly taken his head off. Now one-eyed, he had returned to his home in Binan to help the best way he could. Both veterans of many fights, we had naturally become close - I think he thought of me as a younger sibling of sorts. "Not today, Cho. The field needs to be plowed before end of the week, or we'll probably miss the first rains. Food is scarce enough, we can't afford to lose any." I was eluding, and he knew it, but did not press on. The morning lazied away like that, toiling in the simple earth, among simple people, like it had for the past months. Vol'jin had gone to parts unknown, while Chen had come and gone a few times, as had a few non-natives. When noon came, I found myself above a shogi board at Cho's place.

"I still think you should at least warn your loved ones." I thought back to Dalaran, to that girl lying dead on the ground. I shaked my mind off of the image."I'm not even certain I have any loved ones anymore, Cho. Besides, who would play with you with me gone?""Many pandaren enjoy shogi, my friend." He chuckled "Although I'll admit few can even come close to my skills." Three moves passed. "You haven't used my spare armor stand either, Queldan. You'll be sore for days when you'll put it on again."

Silence. I sighed and made my move. "Maybe I shouldn't wear it, then." Cho sighed in turn, stood and paced to a black kimono, crowned by a "limao", the name of the straw hats all Shado-pan wore."Queldan, I've tried to avoid this conversation-"I growled annoyingly."Hear me out. I understand you, I really do - because I'm just as evil as you are-"I began to stand and tried to interject, but he would not stop."On my first day on the wall, I was so terrified I was lost to an errand Sha. I wounded three men before they could get me back. My brother died when his commander ordered a suicide attack against a critical Mantid position. And as for my wife..." He trailed. "Better you not know what the Mogu do to their prisoners."I stood silent, dumbfounded as he traced a finger over his hollow socket."I feel as much shame and anger and apathy as you, friend. And I wish I could till the fields for the rest of my life, see my daughter give birth and raise a grandchild. But if I'm not ready to leave it all behind, bleed and die in a lonely corner of the world in a single breath, they might all die or worse.""But sometimes even doing the right thing won't change anything! I-"He snapped back "Don't you think I know that? Fourty years on the wall, and i have seen countless stories like ours! This life- in the field, it IS good, Queldan. You've seen it - lived it! But it is not for us. Like all those countless stories, we are not to be behind the wall. We are to BE the wall. Because if our brick tumbles, the whole wall goes down."I was silent in shame."I will be leaving tonight, friend. There is news that the Mogu are again on the rise, in their home island to the North. Even if I can't fight much, the Shado-pan will need every helping hand it can get." He stepped back to the shogi board and made his move before speaking again. "When I will come back, we'll finish this game, telling each other our new stories. For now, I must prepare myself." Cho went up the stairs, leaving me in silence. It took me a few minutes to leave the house, before crumbling on the doorstep.

The weather had taken a sudden turn for the worse - the rain was already pouring on my house's roof, and thunder rumbled in the distance. A moody weather for a moody Blood elf, I drily noted. I was too angry to find any sleep tonight, anger at both at Cho and myself. There wasn't really anyone to blame for all of this - everyone from Cho to Garrosh had done what they had believed right, in their own warped sense. People had died because of them, as people had died because of me. I stood back up, and came face to face to my old Shattered Sun Shield once again. Quel'danas... How I miss you so. And mother, mother who had stood vigil for decades on the island, like Cho had. Had she seen as many death and destruction before her own demise? I paced to my old shield, the one I had bought on the island and that had never left my side since. I was in a half-trance when I smelled the smoke in the air and the screams on the wind.

My heart raced when I was at the doorstep. The girl from Dalaran was dying all over again. Fire had broken out from the smithy, but that was little compared to the immense figures rising at the village's entrance, clad in blood-red armor. Mogu. As Cho had warned, the Mogu had come to claim the town. The villagers were fleeing, but the bridge to the nearby Jinyu town was already in flames, cutting off escape. To the South, Sauroks. East and West, water and cliffs. To the North, Mogu. Binan was a deathtrap. The Mogu began to march - half a dozen in total. They fanned out quickly - they were probably planning to corral the villagers and take them prisoner. They passed my house without looking, giving me free way to the North and Eastwind Rest, or maybe One Keg. One of the children screamed. I ran.

A female was guarding her cubs, facing bravely the mogu soldier, who chuckled at the sight. He hefted his spear for the killing blow but fell flat on his face screaming - losing his foot does that to you. He just had enough time to turn his head and see my axe falling on his neck before his head went flying. "Go to the Villager Place, and don't look back! Grab everyone you can with you! GO!" I must have looked ridicilous with just my pants on and a woodchopper's axe, but they were too terrified to notice, and just ran for it. My hair was falling on my face and my body was chivering with cold, but there was still a job ahead. I charged the two mogu heading my way, and there was fear in their eyes. For the first time in months, I prayed for the Light, and the Light answered.

It was over in less than ten minutes, give or take. The absence of armor had been the deal-breaker this time around - in the cramped quarters of the village, I could easily move around the immense Mogu, whose weapons were bumping against walls when they tried to lift them, and whose armor blocked their movement. They hadn't protected their legs, and couldn't dodge when down. We had three dead and two more wounded in the panic, but the fire had been put out. I stooped over one of the dead and stared in Cho's one good eye.

"And now, you're going to ask me to go do the good deeds you can't anymore, right? Egoistical till the end, right, friend?"

The rain was still falling when I had my armor was back on. The ties were all wrong, but I would have time enough to put them back in place soon enough. The Shattered Sun Crest looked at me omniously, but I saw approval in the black sockets as I raised my hand to unhang it. To spend decades in the filth, so that others may till the field and raise the children. I was musing about ever having children of my own when I stopped at Cho's home. I took one long look at the Shado-pan's helm. No, it would not do Cho honor - this helm represented Pandaria, and despite my love of its people, it was not my place. I placed a hand on the shogi board, and lifted its king piece. Yes, that would do much better.

The Horde was waiting, and the Mogu were waiting. It might not have been everything I had dreamed of, but with the help of those of good will, and if I gave it my all, maybe we could make this world just a bit better for our own children, like our parents before us.

When that day comes, seek all the light and wonder of this world, and fight.

Teranoid wrote:BRD is still ridiculously terrible no matter how much you break it up.

BRD was probably one of the better dungeons in the game; it's just from an entirely different era where dungeons had a different purpose.

It's part of why I hate that they completely REMOVED the old Sunken Temple and that kind of stuff instead of recreating it (and leaving the old version in).

These dungeons lately have been bad enough with tanks that don't speak english/have never been there before/ignore party chat that I couldn't imagine sitting through "OKAY WAIT WE HAVE TO DO THESE STATUES THE RIGHT WAY OTHERWI- oh fuck it.. /leave group"

The problem with BRD is when you zone in unless you're like 57 or something you have absolutely no idea which section you're on unless you meander your way around. It's to the point where I'd rather get 2 min of questing in between being steamrolled by bored lvl 90s than sit through another run of that hellhole.